How solar energy stabilizes the grid 

Clean energy storage and demand response get credit for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills but could offer more. Some conservatives discuss liabilities in tomorrow’s power system. Below are benefits and addressing some concerns to integrate solar energy in our traditional markets. 
 

Grid reliability is essential

Little attention is given to the way solar help stabilize the network. A combination of smart inverters and plant operation can enable solar energy to provide reliability services, from frequency control to voltage regulation. For instance, strategically operating a 300-megawatt solar farm to provide reliability services to the wholesale market. The outcome was a success, it performed better than typical gas turbine technologies. A clean energy project can provide a reliability better than any source of conventional generation.
Most projects are compensated by energy delivered, not for their contribution to grid reliability. The industry's incentive to create advanced grid features have been restricted to regulatory compliance or prevention of feeder clogs and ramping issues that hinder the installation of more solar. This resulted in providers to improve the cost structure of solar but little to optimize the technology for grid reliability. To resolve this, grid operators could introduce or increase incentives for reactive power.  
 

Resilience is required 

Resilience and reliability are different. Reliability is the ability for the network to transport electricity at request. Resilience is the ability for the grid to recooperate rapidly and effectienctly from a major event. A grid that’s reliable but  falls apart after a disaster, exemplies this. When a crisis occurs, a resilient grid provides a smaller impact and a quicker recovery. One of the biggest perks of microgrids are networks of distributed energy sources that operate in parallel with, or islanded from, the central grid. Examples of microgrids during grid outages, such as Texas microgrids to keep operating during Hurricane Harvey to the Princeton University microgrid that maintained power during Hurricane Sandy. They’re vital to keep for resilience especially for critical facilities. However, there’s regulatory challenges that hinder their expansion.

Utility rights: Selling power to third parties via new distribution lines infringes on utility franchise rights. This typically is an exclusive agreement between the utility and a municipality to use public rights-of-way for lines and wires. This prevents the use of microgrids that’s more economical. 

Threat of more regulation: Any entity that sells energy in which their equipment crosses a public street is an electric corporation that falls under the traditional utility regulation and ratemaking authority of the public utility commission. This increases the challenges to achieve economic viability. Regulators could put legal guardrails around  microgrids that  allows them to grow rapidly without undermining regulated utility monopolies.

If you want to join the solar revolution, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. For more information about solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for guides and articles.